Supreme Court Clarifies Ability of Farmers to Sue Pesticide Manufacturers

Abstract

<p>There are several situations that a farmer may face that will limit the farmer’s ability to sue a manufacturer on a product liability claim.¹One of these involves damages arising from the use of registered pesticides. The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act,²limits the ability of injured parties to sue pesticide manufacturers on either an inadequate labeling or wrongful death claim basis. A significant question has been whether state law damage claims for pesticide-related agricultural crop injury are pre-empted by FIFRA and whether FIFRA pre-emption of damage claims is limited to the specific subjects that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviews at the time it first approves a pesticide product’s labeling. The recent opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in <em>Bates, et al. v. Dow Agrosciences LLC</em>³provides important guidance on how courts are to analyze FIFRA preemption claims in the future.</p>